Why Exterior Electrical Outlets Stop Working

Recently the exterior outlets have gone out. The effected areas are the entrance outlet, the rear outlet, the exterior light as well as the outlet inside the garage…

Electrical Question from Ted about Exterior GFCI Outlets
Background: Ted, a Homeowner from Snohomish, WaQuestion: Recently the exterior outlets have gone out. The house is only 5 yrs old and never had any electrical problems before. I’ve checked the circuit breakers and all seem to be fine. I can’t seem to find a breaker connected to the outlets. The builder of this house is D R Horton and I don’t know if there’s a separate box in the house or not. The effected areas are the entrance outlet, the rear outlet, the mand door exterior light as well as the outlet inside the garage. The outlet that runs my compressor is also out. The compressor is never on unless I need to use it. I hope to figure this out as our security lights on the exterior are not lighting up. Thank you!

Additional Comments: If this works out well I will certainly suggest this to other people.

Dave’s Reply:
Thanks for your electrical question Ted.
You most likely have a GFCI outlet or circuit breaker that has tripped off which controls these areas.
Check at all the locations that you have described for a GFCI Outlet and push the reset button. Sometimes the main GFCI outlet is located in the laundry room in a convenient location to make it easy to reset when situations like this occur.

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